Italy, Poland and Türkiye eye trophy in the final round of the 2024 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League

After the last three teams qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games secured their places at the end of the preliminary round of the 2024 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League, the final round will throw off on Thursday, 20 June, in Bangkok, Thailand, with eight teams vying for the coveted trophy.

Three European sides – reigning champions Türkiye, Italy and Poland –  are still alive in the fight for the trophy, finishing on the top seven places in the preliminary round, while the eighth qualified side, hosts Thailand, finished on the 13th place, with only three wins and nine losses.

Türkiye, which had a perfect 2023, winning the CEV EuroVolley 2023 Women and the FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League, will look to rekindle the fire after finishing the preliminary round on the sixth place, with eight wins and four losses, including the last two matches, 2:3 against the People’s Republic of China and 0:3 against Brazil.

Led by the MVP of the CEV EuroVolley 2023, Melissa Vargas, who is also the top scorer in this editions of the FIVB Women’s Voleyball Nations League, with 254 points, Türkiye will face a strong challenge from Poland in the quarter-finals, in an all-European battle, which will surely deliver a team from the continent in the semi-finals.

Poland have been immaculate until the start of the last week of this edition of the competition, but two losses against China (0:3) and Brazil (1:3) saw Poland finish on the third place, behind Brazil and Italy.

It will also be a special match for Magdalena Stysiak and Vargas, teammates at Fenerbahçe Opet Istanbul, which made the semi-finals in the CEV Champions League Women this season, but only one team will progress to the semi-finals, where both Poland and Türkiye qualified last season.

The other European team qualified for the quarter-finals, which also made the cut for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, is Italy, which finished the preliminary round with 10 wins and two losses, tied with Poland for the number of wins, but with one point more, having won more sets (32), than their European counterparts.

Italy will also have a crunch match against the United States of America in the quarter-finals, but an all-rounded European side, with Paola Egonu and Ekaterina Antropova starring so far in the first 12 matches of the competition.
 
Italy have won the competition in 2022, but have never made it to the semi-finals in the other four editions they took part in, as they will now look to improve on that record against the United States.

The other two semi-finals will see Brazil take on hosts Thailand, while China face Japan in a 100% Asian battle. The quarter-finals will be played on 20 and 21 June, with the semi-finals one day later, with the winner decided after the final on 23 June.